Cycling and walking

The lion’s share of the cash, some £8.6 million, would be spent on schemes to create walking and cycling corridors form the edge of the city centre to out-laying areas.

One such project could be be along Saffron Lane where city mayor Sir Peter Soulsby said there was ‘enormous potential’ to create a better link to the Saffron Lane Estate and Eyres Monsell.

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The money would also be used to better connect the city centre to De Montfort University and the University of Leicester and perhaps out towards the city boundary with Oadby where many students live in halls of residence.

The council has said it would contribute £2.4 million to the Government funding.

Electric buses

Leicester Park and Ride

There are also proposals to have electric buses initially running on the Birstall Park and Ride route, along with the associated infrastructure allowing the electric vehicles to be charged overnight at the Birstall Park and Ride site.

The service is designed to cut congestion on the busy A6 corridor, and using electric buses rather than the existing diesel stock would help cut air pollution in the city.

This would cost £2 million in total with a £400,000 city council contribution.

Buses will be retrofitted with pollution cutting devices

Smart ticketing

Some £2.2 million would be committed to bringing in a smart ticketing payment system on all city buses.

It would allow payment methods including contactless credit cards and mobile phones.

It is hoped this would reduce passenger boarding time on buses, making services timetables more reliable and potentially cutting journey times.

What the mayor says

Sir Peter said: “Of course there is no guarantee we will get this money. There is £60 million available and other cities will want as much of that as possible.

“But I think we have demonstrated we have the capability to deliver major projects in Leicester which are designed to meet the objectives of this fund and give us something to build upon.

“A share of the DfT funding would enable us to bring forward some very significant schemes focusing on better transport infrastructure to support the city’s economy, using smart transport technology and encouraging more people to use buses, walking and cycling networks connecting more areas of the city.

“The prospect of a bike share scheme is a very interesting one, and we are currently looking into the details of such a scheme, as well as the logistics of how a scheme could best work for the city.”

The city council is expecting to hear from the DfT whether it has been successful later in February 2019 and if successful would aim to deliver it programme within the next financial year from April.